Spiritual Formation (8)
As a pastor, teacher, counselor, etc, what is your vision for the Malaysian church?
My vision for the Malaysian church is to be mature enough to see beyond the matrix in which she is stuck at the moment. She is paralysed by a colonial past and cannot seem to get over the colonial form of Christianity she has inherited.
I feel that the Malaysian church should be mature enough in her faith journey to start questioning many presuppositions previously taken to be a priori. Much of what the Malaysian church believes and practises is utterly disconnected from the local cultural wisdom of the Malaysian society. She is very much an alien in her own nation.
Even today, at the 50th celebration of our nationhood, the Malaysian church is still being imperialised by the Western culture, both high and low cultures. It may not be so much the fault of the West as it is our own, for we are often drowned in our own insecurity.
For example, two national bodies responsible for bringing together a significant segment of the Malaysian churches recently implemented a programme transplanted from a Western evangelistic association. Many of these methods transplanted from the West, although not wrong in themselves, are often utterly insensitive to local worldviews and cultures.
And yet, such national ecclesiastical bodies are not yet mature enough to examine such programmes critically and theologically. For any national ecclesiastical body to seemingly assume that an evangelistic effort can be transplanted universally (what more from the West to Asia) without a sense of cultural sensitivity speaks of an insensitivity of the church towards her own nation. More fundamentally, it speaks of a lack of theological understanding on the part of the ecclesiastical leaders of what it means to be the church of Jesus Christ in Malaysia.
Ecclesiastically, I am merely an active member of the local church holding no position on the organisational hierarchy. But my vision for the Malaysian church is simply that she matures and develops a strong ecclesiology (a strong understanding of what it means that she is the church in Malaysia).
Comments (3)
Dear SK,
A few examples of how 'the Malaysian church is still being imperialised by the Western culture, both high and low cultures' would be helpful and may I know what is 'the recently implemented programme transplanted from a Western evangelistic association'?
Thank you
Posted by SP Lim | August 8, 2007 7:42 AM
Hi SP!
Examples of the Malaysian church still being imperialised by Western culture are replete: 1) How we still take on to songs written in the West for our corporate worship, 2) How we still exalt the position of preachers visiting from the West above local preachers, 3) How we see Western-type attires as the most appropriate form of dressing for church, 4) How we are trying to conform to Western ways of ministerial training in the seminary. These are just a few.
As for the recently implemented programme, I think I should refrain from mentioning it in public. I think they are on the websites of the two national bodies representing the Protestant churches in Malaysia though. :p
Posted by sk | August 8, 2007 12:33 PM
Hi SK,
Thanks for those examples. Allow me to respond to those examples.
1. We need to encourage more local songwriters to compose. I believe someone by the name of Pastor Ng Wah Lok has produced a few albums. My church has also recently produced an album to celebrate God's faithfulness on our anniversary. It consist of songs written by members of our congregation and we are singing them during worship .I guess it takes time for this to evolve. The Malaysian Church is still young relatively speaking. Having said the above, I think we should still continue to sing songs especially those hymns written by Westerners as some of them convey deep theological truths which you will have difficulty finding them in contemporary worship songs.
2. I have been to a few mission trips to a country which is much backward compared to ours. I got the feeling that those Christians there 'exalt' our team above their local preachers, listening attentively to every word we spoke. None of us had any formal theological education or held high leadership position back home. Could it be a case also of familiarity breeds contempt? Of course, this shouldn't be the case. But aren't all of us fallen creatures in need of grace?
3. Are you talking about ties and suits? Well, as long as we dress conscious of the fact that we are coming into the presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, I don't think it is a major issue.
4. Can't comment on that as I don't have any experience about it.
In our quest and zeal to contextualize and to free ourselves from the yoke of colonization, I hope we don't throw away the baby with the bathwater. Didn't some people argue that human rights are Western values. It doesn't apply here. We have Asian values. Well, I guess that will be another discussion altogether. Btw, I think Ng Kam Weng has written something about this recently in his blog.
Posted by SP Lim | August 9, 2007 9:03 AM